Review by Eloise Robertson

Coorie at Gilded Balloon Patter House

Nate Kitch’s latest offering, Replica, is chock-full hour of humorous concepts and absurd peculiarities. Rather more a comedy of confusion than a standard joke and payoff structure, it is a love letter to antagonistic comedy. From the characterful set-dressing, the perfect backdrop to Kitch’s dishevelled presence, one immediately garners that the order of the day is inanity.

The audience is, seemingly, being let into a mad world of Kitch’s creating. According to the rules of this world, repetition is the king of comedy, and the fourth wall is a mortal enemy. The audience sits bewildered, jolly, and rather awkward; all are engaged in trying to work out what’s happening and, in the meantime, laughing along to abate the dreadful feeling like we aren’t quite in on the joke.

As comedian’s responses go, when faced with a lagging audience, criticism is quite my least favourite. Kitch’s shift of attention onto the audience, somewhat to the detriment of his own performance, did achieve him a quick-and-easy laugh but was insufficient to win us back.

Perhaps Kitch approaches stand-up as an art, not to be judged by his audience’s laughter but for the pride he can take in it. This approach paid dividends in creativity: performing with his back turned, doing elaborate silent bits, and positing some very humorous ideas. In these moments he showed real talent at his art; he showed himself to be an impressive physical comedian with some brilliantly funny thoughts.

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